Morimoto acknowledges that people are intimidated by Japanese
cooking and provides tips and encouragement. Morimoto also provides some
history of cuisine and his relationship with Japanese food. Japanese food incorporates
different cultures into its cuisine and they love to do renditions of different
types of food, which you can see reflected in his book.

I love that Morimoto shows his readers how to make the perfect
white rice. Even though I’m nearly half Asian, I’m not that good at making rice.
Until now. While I thought the secret was rinsing the rice until the water runs
clear (which is part of it), I think the real secret is letting the rice dry
out after rinsing and before cooking. I can now make a pot of rice that I can
be proud of, which isn’t mushy or sticking to the bottom of the pan!

While Morimoto considers rice to be a staple in his cookbook, I
also would like to add dashi or kelp dashi as a staple to his cookbook. Several
of his recipes use dashi, which only takes about 15 minutes to make and I’m
looking forward to learning how to make it so I can make my way throughout the
book.

For this post, I was debating between two recipes, tonkatsu or the
Japanese-style curry, because both recipes bring back fond memories! But I
ultimately decided on tonkatsu because of the ease of the recipe and lack of
time as I was preparing to leave for vacation.

I grew up eating Japanese-style curry, which my parents used to
make and Morimoto’s recipe is nearly the exact recipe I grew up with. Because my dad is from Hawaii, he grew up eating this curry and so I grew
up eating this curry. Hawaii, like Japan, is influenced by many different
cultures in its cuisine. The only reason I decided against making this recipe
is that it calls for curry-roux blocks, which contain wheat, and I did not have
the time to make this recipe gluten-free before I left on vacation. I was able
to find Japanese curry powder, which I plan on using to adapt this recipe in
the future so that it’s gluten-free.

Tonkatsu was my favorite meal while visiting Japan 10 years ago
(along with Japanese ramen). My friend, Nicole, and her, now, husband, Lucas
both lived there for two years and I was fortunate enough to get the
opportunity to visit them for a week and a half. They introduced me to tonkatsu
my very first day and we ate it nearly every day I was there. The sauces were
all slightly different, but my favorite restaurant was where we could choose
the types of sauces and crush our own sesame seeds. You crush sesame seeds in
this recipe, which reminds me of my visit to Japan. You can even provide your
guests a mortar and pestle for them to crush their own seeds and add as many as
they’d like! It’s a simple interactivity with your food that makes it a little
fun.

Nicole and me in Nara, Japan (2006)

Nicole and Lucas preparing their tonkatsu sauce

Tonkatsu, one of our favorite meals in Japan

What I like about tonkatsu is that while the recipe itself isn’t
really versatile, you can use the fried cutlet in other recipes. Morimoto uses
leftover tonkatsu in his Katsu Don recipe, which is a pork cutlet and egg rice
bowl. And while I was in Japan, one of the restaurants we went to poured
Japanese-style curry on the cutlet with rice instead of serving it with
tonkatsu sauce. For this recipe, I used gluten-free all-purpose flour and gluten-free panko breadcrumbs and it was very successful!

Another recipe that is used throughout this cookbook is his
teriyaki sauce. While Morimoto offers a traditional chicken teriyaki recipe, he
also uses the sauce to make a chicken teriyaki spaghetti, steak bowls with
spicy teriyaki sauce, chicken meatballs with teriyaki sauce, and slow cooked
pork belly with beer-teriyaki sauce.

My only wish for this cookbook is that the steam and stir fry
sections were a little bit longer because they only contained three or four
recipes. But that’s my only complaint, if that can even be considered a
complaint.

Please check out the rest of the #JapaneseHomeCooking Blog Party
to see what other bloggers are contributing for this cookbook!

For the cutlets:
Pour about 2 inches of vegetable oil into a medium pot and set it over medium-high heat until the oil reaches 350F on a deep-fry thermometer.

Use the tip of a sharp knife to score the cutlets, making about a dozen short, shallow cuts all over each side. This keeps the cutlets from curling when they fry. Season both sides lightly with salt and pepper.

Put the panko, flour, and eggs into three separate wide bowls. Working with one cutlet at a time, add it to the flour and turn to coat it, shaking off any excess. Transfer it to the egg and turn to coat, letting any excess egg drip off. Finally, transfer it to the panko, turning to coat well and piling on some of the panko and pressing lightly with your hands. The goal is to get as much panko to adhere as you can. Transfer the breaded cutlets to a plate and repeat with the remaining cutlets. Discard any leftover flour, egg, and panko.

Soak the cabbage in icy water for 10 minutes and drain well.

Just before you fry, stir the oil well. Fry the cutlets two at a time, adjusting the heat it necessary to maintain the oil temperature and turning the pieces over occasionally, until the cutlets are golden brown and crispy, 5-6 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain and fry the remaining cutlets. Let the cutlets rest for a few minutes, then cut them into 3/4-inch slices and serve with cabbage, lemon, and sauce for dipping.

For the tonkatsu sauce:
Put the sesame seeds in a medium pan, set over medium heat, and toast, stirring and tossing frequently, until thy're a few shades darker, about 3 minutes. Transfer them to a bowl and let them cool.

Combine the remaining sauce ingredients in a small saucepan, stir, and set over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer, lower the heat to maintain a gentle simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the flavors come together, about 10 minutes. Season to taste. Transfer the sauce to a bowl and let it come to room temperature. It keeps in the fridge for up to 1 week.

When you're ready to serve, pound the seeds to a powder in a mortar or grind them in a spice grinder and serve in a bowl at the table, instructing your guests to mix the paste into the sauce to taste.